Kenpachi Zaraki
Kenpachi Zaraki '''is the captain of the Eleventh Squad in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and his lieutenant is Yachiru Kusajishi. He is also the eleventh Kenpachi to hold that position. Background Physical Appearance Kenpachi is a tall, muscular Soul Reaper with a wild and aggressive appearance, which fits his personality. He has a long face with pronounced cheekbones, and pronounced, hairless eyebrow ridges. He has green eyes and long, stringy black hair that grows out past his shoulders. A notable trait in his appearance is a long, thin scar running down the left side of his face, which was inflicted on him by Retsu Unohana when he was a child. He is one of the tallest Soul Reapers, towering at 202 centimeters (approximately 6 feet 8 inches), making him almost twice the height of his lieutenant, though shorter than Captain Komamura. He wears a sleeveless captain's ''haori ''(which belonged to the previous captain of the Eleventh Squad and took it after his defeat), which had a ragged look to it, as well as a lavender coloration on the coat's underside, and also the Eleventh Squad's rhombus number on the coat's back, with the Thirteen Guard Squads' symbol. Kenpachi also wears a special eyepatch on his right eye (which he uses to conceal his immense spiritual power). The design of the eyepatch is single one and the color is black with a grey outline. Personality Although he's known to be a violent fighter, Kenpachi's actions tend to be for the best. He has a very poor sense of direction, at times asking Yachiru for help (even though her sense of direction is just as bad). Kenpachi lives for battle and enjoys a good fight more than anything. He even holds back in an effort to make any fight last longer. He also claims that injury and death are nothing but the price one pays for a good fight. Despite his division being the most blood-thirsty squad of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, the Eleventh Squad have their own code of ethics, which is different from the rules and regulation of Soul Society. Although he thrives for battle, Kenpachi has shown to have emotions. Kenpachi and his lieutenant, Yachiru, have been close ever since they met and have a father-daughter-like relationship (making Yachiru one of the few people he cares for, along with Eleventh Squad Third Seat Ikkaku Madarame and Eleventh Squad Fifth Seat Yumichika Ayasegawa). Aside from Yachiru, Kenpachi deeply gives meaning to his name. Following his fight with Ichigo Kurosaki, Kenpachi talks about the pain of not having a name, as he lived his early years without one. This causes him to feel guilty that his sword isn't acknowledged by its own name. Since then, he has strived to learn its identity. Despite his tendency to be brutal, Kenpachi usually stops a fight if his opponent is too injured to fight back, claiming that he isn't interested in fighting "weaklings who can't fight anymore; nor is he obligated to deal a death blow to anyone who isn't capable of fighting any longer". However, he will unhesitatingly kill his opponent if they refuse to end their fight, as seen during his battles with Kaname Tosen and Nnoitora Gilga. On multiple occasions, Kenpachi has shown to greatly respect those who can defeat him in a fight and to those who can push him to his limit. Ever since Ichigo handed him his first known loss (though Ichigo also considers their fight a loss for him), Kenpachi has considered the latter a member of his division. He also expresses his willingness to engage him in a rematch every time they meet, only to be turned down as Ichigo already considers themselves as friends. Nevertheless, Kenpachi still challenges him in a duel, as evidenced when he aided Ichigo in his fight against the Bounts (where he gave "his blessing," stating that in doing so would make Ichigo stronger for "their anticipated fight"). After his defeat of Nnoitra, Kenpachi expresses his respect to the fallen warrior. It seems that Kenpachi sometimes contradicts his own logic in fighting. On the one hand, Kenpachi wishes to increase his own personal power. On the other hand, he conceals his strength to enjoy a fight for as long as possible. Irrational to a certain extent, Kenpachi is one of the most complex characters in the series, as he exhibits a wide range of traits: lethargic, bloodthirsty, rebellious, aggressive, empathetic, and wise. History Powers and Abilities Zanjutsu Prowess *Master Swordsman Specialist: Due to the lawlessness of the Zaraki district, Kenpachi's skills with his sword has been honed to a masterful level, letting him strike multiple times with changes of attack type (from slash to pierce) without any difficulty. His unpolished skills and strength with his sword make it so he always fights with one hand free. He only uses both hands when faced against opponents he feels will beat him otherwise, as shown with Nnoitora and momentarily Ichigo. His insane cutting strength is also evident as he is capable of easily cutting through an Espada's Hierro, which is harder than steel, as well as slicing apart a skyscraper with a mere flick of the wrist. As the Captain of the Eleventh Squad, which specializes in sword fighting, he is one of the most, if not the most, proficient swordsmen in all of Soul Society. **Kendo: Kenpachi has also displayed considerable knowledge and skill in Kendo (a requirement Yamamoto put Kenpachi through before officially joining the Gotei 13), though Kenpachi despises using skills and techniques learned from another source. **Ryodan' (''Bisection): Spiritual Power *[[Reiryoku|'Tremendous Spiritual Power']]: Even by a captain's standards, his Reiryoku is absolutely monsterous. In fact, it is so great that Kenpachi can fight on par with two other captain-level opponents without using his full power, even when he is wearing his energy-sealing eye patch and his opponents release their Zanpakuto's Bankai. His spiritual energy has been shown to be powerful enough to affect entire areas to the point of disrupting energy attacks from enemies, and cause others from seemingly miles away to enter a state of paralysis and confusion. Similar to Ichigo, when unleashing a strong enough surge of energy, it becomes visible and yellow in color with the appearance of a human-shaped skull. His Reiatsu color is golden-yellow. **'Unruly Reiatsu Control': Due to his monsterous spiritual energy, Kenpachi has a hard time controling his destructive force. Kenpachi can exert enough Reiatsu to repel the poison of Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo. Over time in a year however, he has learned to control his spiritual power for a bit and has learned to use his power to fly and combat enemies in the air. ***'Damage Resistance': He can also use it as a sort of armor, making it impossible for him to be harmed by nothing less than the most skilled or powerful opponents. This is first demonstrated when Ichigo tries to cut Kenpachi at the start of their fight. Kenpachi allows Ichigo to strike him, yet not only does he fail to cut him, but Ichigo's hands start to bleed because of it. This is comparable to an Arrancar's Hierro. ***'Shock Wave': He has also demonstrated enough control to focus and unleash his spiritual pressure in the form of a powerful shockwave. When using both hands, his shockwave can cause a huge radius of destruction. ***'Energy Wave': By striking at the ground, Kenpachi can create an overflowing wave of yellow spiritual energy, which surges forward before crashing into Kenpachi's target. Hakuda Prowess *'Hakuda Expert': While preferring to use his blade in battle, Kenpachi has demonstrated several times to be very dangerous barehanded as well. He can easily catch an opponent's attack with a single hand, perform powerful kicks and take-downs, and has demonstrated superb skill with throwing weapons. Physical Prowess *'Immense Strength': Perhaps due to years of combat experience and time on the battlefield, Kenpachi has a very large degree of physical strength, most commonly displayed by his ability to fight back his opponent's attacks with a single arm. Repeatedly, he has shown clear evidenced of his strength from acts like kicking Tosen through a building and slamming Komamura over his shoulder with one hand in their battle, as well as when he grabbed Ichigo's giant sword barehanded and reeled both him and the sword in for an attack. He also demonstrated his strength when he rammed through a building fighting Ichigo. With just his bare hand, Kenpachi was also able deflect the Quinto Espada, Nnoitora Gilga's Cero. His sword attacks are also powerful enough to cut through Yammy Riyalgo's released state Hierro to remove his limbs in a single strike and knock the giant Arrancar off his feet. He is even able to fend off an opponent's gigantic sword with a single hand. According to Shizune, his strength rivals that of Tsunade, who is Konoha's Fifth Hokage and known for her inhuman strength and medical prowess. *'Immense Speed': While he possesses little skill for Shunpo, Kenpachi has shown to be deceptively fast for his size and build. His speed can even help him catch up with stronger opponents. Thanks to his tremendous raw power, Kenpachi's leg strength allows him to more than make up for his lack of Shunpo, allowing him to move fast enough to instantly close a huge gap of space between him and the opponent and even seemingly disappear from sight. In battle he is able to strike with incredible speed in rapid succession, making it highly difficult for his opponents to find an opening and counterattack. *'Immense Endurance': His physical strength and speed is matched by his resilience. Kenpachi often ignores most of the injuries he sustains in battle (much like a berserker), not suffering any debilitation despite having multiple slash wounds in his body. He allowed himself to be stabbed during his fight with Tosen just to grab Tosen's blade to dispel his Bankai's effect. During his battle with Nnoitora, he suffered numerous slash wounds and was even impaled and almost beheaded with no visual impairment of his fighting abilities, Nnoitra noting most people would have already been dead by then. Even after receiving grievous injuries which left him in a comatose state, he recovered only days later, well enough to resume training. *'Immense Durability': As resilient as Kenpachi is, he is just as hard to damage. During his battle against Yammy, while Kenpachi was focusing his attention on Ichigo, Yammy delivered a powerful blow with his massive fist, launching Kenpachi several meters and smashing him into a large pillar. Despite the impact, Kenpachi quickly emerged unfazed, claiming it was only a "decent punch" and Yammy needed to "put some effort in it". Intelligence *'Highly Perceptive Combatant': Despite his seeming disregard for any strategy in his fights and his self-admitted aversion to thinking during battle, Kenpachi is a very insightful man, regularly showing more understanding than one would expect. Even Byakuya was impressed by Kenpachi's ability to understand things he has no personal experience with. He is very adept at finding and exploiting weaknesses in his opponents' techniques, such as in his battle with Kaname Tosen, where he subdued the latter's Bankai while armed only with a Zanpakuto and the one sense that was left accessible by Tosen's Bankai at the time - that of touch. He is also adept at adjusting to his opponent's attack patterns and battle methods to better counter them. Zanpakuto *'Shikai': Despite not knowing its name, his Zanpakuto is in a constant release state much like Ichigo's Zangetsu. The blade is much longer than that of a standard Zanpakuto, roughly the size of a nodachi ''(''Field Sword) with a guard that extends inward from its center similar to a shinai. The hilt is white although most of it is wrapped in bandages, as is his sword's sheath. Despite constantly being in its Shikai state, Kenpachi’s Zanpakuto does not grant him any additional abilities due to their lack of communication. A further consequence of their disharmony is that it leaves the Zanpakuto with little spiritual energy and becomes easier to damage, ironically making its appearance a reflection of Kenpachi's own practice of weakening himself to fight others on an even level: it is a chipped and seemingly worn-down blade. Despite its appearance, it is easily capable of cutting through most objects. This is demonstrated when he stabs straight through the Shikai form of Ichigo's Zanpakuto and later slices a building in half with careless effort after releasing the full force of his spiritual power. Equipment *Eyepatch Power Seal Relationships Family *Yachiru Kusajishi (Adoptive Daughter and Lieutenant) Friends/Allies *Ikkaku Madarame (Third Seated Officer) *Yumichika Ayasegawa (Fifth Seated Officer) *Ichigo Kurosaki (Good friend and arch-rival) *Rukia Kuchiki *Renji Abarai *Karin Kurosaki *Uryu Ishida *Orihime Inoue *Yasutora Sado *Toshiro Hitsugaya *Byakuya Kuchiki (also rival) *Retsu Unohana (to a degree) *Ganju Shiba Rivals *Ichigo Kurosaki (Arch-rival) *Byakuya Kuchiki *Sajin Komamura *Nnoitora Gilga (also enemy) Enemies *Owari Otsutsuki *The Kihei *The Red Lotus (Xin Bau's Group) *Sosuke Aizen *Kaname Tosen *The Dark Swords *Hollows *The Arrancars *The Espada **Yammy Riyalgo **Nnoitora Gilga (also rival) **Grimmjow Jaegerjaques *The Bounts *Maki Ichinose (Former squad member) *Xcution *Kageroza Inaba *The Reigai *Oko Yushima *Sojiro Kusaka Theme Songs * Background in Other Media * Quotes * Trivia * See Also * Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Males Category:Soul Reapers Category:Soul Reaper Captains Category:Eleventh Squad Category:Thirteen Court Guard Squads Category:Team Karakura (Temporarily Members) Category:Advanced Captain-class Fighters Category:Bleach Series Characters Category:Attack Type Characters Category:Major Characters Category:Naruto, Bleach, Korra, and Sonic: Project Storm Playable Characters Category:Master Swordsmen Specialists Category:Hakuda Experts Category:Heroes Alliance Category:Most Powerful Characters in Bleach Category:Single Characters Category:Leaders/Commanders Category:Thrill-Seekers